From The Pavilion

Cloudy weather against the West Indies! It's still dry but at least it's a change. We're back to dry/sunny tomorrow.

We didn't score enough yesterday and that made our bowling look fairly bad. We need to do something special to stop the West Indies who have won all 3 games so far.

We've batted first and have started badly to say the least. Can Shields get us out of trouble?

M. Morris (rf) 3-0-8-3, F. Shields 4 (8b), R. Ellison 2 (8b)
End of over 5 (2 runs) - USA(16-3) RR 3.20

We managed to get up to 171 yesterday but that was unlikely to be enough. The bowlers had a good go at it, managing to pick up 8 wickets, before the West Indies finally got the win.

It's not been a great tour so it would be good to finish things off with a win against Canada.

Canada's RR looks fairly high for a dry wicket, will be interested to see how this one plays out!

We had a friendly against Zimbabwe and it was a game to remember for debutant Rivera.

Rivera made 22 not out as we fought our way to 154 on a sticky pitch in windy conditions. He then proceeded to take 3-18 and pick up the man of the match award as we bowled them out for 115. So it was a nice 39 run win.

Other notable performances: 38 for Simpson, 36 for Ellison, and 4-27 for Faried.

Well, Cynic's brief and frightening reign is over and leaves his post with 1 senior world cup title to his name!

Despite not promising to make the USA highest ranked nation in the world, Bura has somehow nabbed the role as manager of the USA. The new era began with a friendly against England. A couple of players, Bobby Hunter and Alfredo Brock, were making their senior debuts and were surely desperate to force their way into the new manager's thoughts for the touring squad.

The mighty USA were made to bat first in overcast/uneven. It was a tough start and we were soon struggling after being reduced to 29-2. Graves and Beasley battled back to add a 50+ partnership before Graves gets caught behind for 35 just as USA's total reaches 3 figures. That got England going and the wickets began to tumble. Sadly, Beasley just missed out on his half century as he fell for 46. The USA were in danger of failing to reach a competitive total as we slumped from 100-2 to 142-8. Keeper Bowers managed to hit a few boundaries towards the end before being caught playing a reverse sweep. USA all out for 170.

It's a total that would make England favourites but the USA bowlers were hopeful that some early wickets would really put the pressure on English batsmen. Hunter was quick to get his first ever senior international wicket as he took turns with Garcia to send the English batsmen back to the pavilion until England were 15-4. From then on an american victory seemed almost inevitable, and if it wasn't already wrapped up when Fletcher and Estrada grabbed themselves a wicket apiece it certainly was when a Gallegos double in the final over before the break left England reeling at 75-8. Soon enough Fletcher was picking up his 2nd wicket of the match and Garcia his 3rd. England all out for only 87 and Bura victorious in his first game in charge.

England USA
Batting - Top Order 15,008 13,935
Batting - Middle Order 12,334 14,414
Batting - Tail 5,924 5,177
Bowling - Seam 14,641 (40) 14,722 (50)
Bowling - Spin 14,900 (10) 0 (0)
Fielding/Keeping 17,233 17,445
Overall 252,308 254,878

USA won by 83 runs.

Nice result and write up

darkmatter wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:18 am

Nice result and write up

Indeed! From now on I am keeping Spark in charge of all the PR stuff!

National One Day Div 3 - England v USA Review

An interesting match for Bura's competitive debut as England find themselves in division 3 against veteran division 3 campaigners USA.

We decided to have a bat in slow/cloudy conditions. It looked a very good decision as we reached 87-1 in relative comfort. But, when Richardson fell for 49, all hell broke loose. In no time at all we found ourselves at 133-5 as Graves was out for 40 and defeat was staring us in the face. From looking like making 220+, we were now battling to reach something defendable. We did indeed battle hard with Estrada making a useful 25 along the way to help us to 191. Not what we were hoping for but we had given ourselves a slight chance.

The bowlers took that chance to start with by reducing England to 45-3. Unfortunately, veteran spinner Barnes wasn't having his best game and let the pressure off of England, conceding far more runs than you would normally expect from someone of his class. The team never really recovered from that as McInnes, Whitridge, and Giggs all helped themselves to useful scores and England cruised to victory with more than 8 overs to go. There were some late wickets but this didn't disguise the fact that England had got the better of us at the crucial points in the game.

England won by 3 wickets

England USA
Batting - Top Order 15,163 15,619
Batting - Middle Order 13,700 12,982
Batting - Tail 6,112 5,162
Bowling - Seam 14,509 (40) 14,371 (40)
Bowling - Spin 14,283 (10) 14,864 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 17,222 17,732
Overall 257,771 255,440

Bit unfortunate with the batting collapse, although I think to get them down 7 wickets was a fair effort from the bowlers

It would have been great to beat England, but the Game 2 victory against Scotland was nice. In Game 3, we've set a decent total against UAE, which hopefully we can defend. A win today would put us in a reasonable place heading into the last 2 games, though Australia and England will be difficult to catch.

Great result against UAE guys, I thought it was slipping away but that brace by Garcia changed the complexion completely.

Yes, a great, tense win against a good UAE team, then a 3rd victory over a struggling Zimbabwe team.

In Game 5, we're up against the top of the table Australians. We're the underdogs (again). A win (or a tie) will secure promotion. A loss will probably mean England will overtake us for second place.

Let battle commence!

Sadly, we end in 3rd place on NRR.

Time to prepare for the T20 tour. Success in the last couple of seasons means were in the top division and already have a spot at the World Cup. Can we continue to punch about our weight?

It was always going to be a tough ask against Aus. Got excited by the 2 wickets by Garcia (what a week he had!)

Good effort chaps, looking forward to the T20